Draw a triangle over the word ‘our’ and write above it ‘spiritual we’.In the second sentence underline ‘the life-giving grace of God:Without unity, the heart of AA would cease to beat, our world arteries would no long carry the life-giving grace of God.

For next week: Continued … Write your Step One Surrender. We will share next week off recording, and when all are done, we will begin Step Two.

1.Is this the first time you have read the traditions? a.If it is, how do you feel about studying them? b.Do you think the traditions are important? c.If it isn’t, how do you feel about spending workshop time studying them? d.Where are the traditions in the hierarchy of importance?2.What do traditions mean to you?Write out a tradition in your own personal life.3.What does common welfare mean to you? How can you own our common welfare?4.Write on your own experience in protecting or opposing the common welfare of the group.5.What does unity mean to you?6.Are you willing to bebold and speak up when someone is working against unity in your step one fellowship?7.Do you really cherish this quality of unity within the group?8.Do you know of a 12-step group that had to close?Did they do practices that were not in the common welfare for the unity of AA?9.Do you believe that 12-step recovery fellowships carry the life-giving grace of God?10.Can you imagine that people in their selfishness could actually be so selfish and not care about the common welfare that AA ceased to function?

​Due to technical difficulties with the phone bridge this week, there is no recording of the Big Book Step Study Workshop for Thursday March 21, 2013. But check back in a few days in case we are able to rectify the problem.

Soul Work Thursday March 21, 2013

Reading: AA 12&12 Tradition One, pages 129 – 130.

Words: Common, Welfare, Unity, Cherished, Liberty, Anarchy

For next week: Write your Step One Surrender. We will share next week off recording, when all are done, will begin Step Two.​Questions:1. What does unity look like to you in your personal life (family, work, Step One fellowship)?2. After reading “Our lives, the lives of all to come, depend squarely upon it.”a) Would you say unity is the most cherished in your life?b) Do you see Unity is cherished in your Fellowship?3. Picture your life with no 12 step recovery to go to and write about it.4. Picture what you have. Write about what you do have and whether you’re grateful for it or not.5. What do you see is AA’s “irresistible strength of purpose and action”? Write about in your own words, so you could explain to someone.

​(week 63) 14 March 2013 Big Book Step Study WorkshopAA 12 x 12 Step One page 23 from beginning of last paragraph:‘It was obviously necessary to raise the bottom the rest of us had hit….’until the end of the step on page 24:‘We stand ready to do anything which will lift the merciless obsession from us.’

underline: ‘It was then discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again.

Q2. (23:2) ‘Perhaps you’re not an alcoholic after all. Why don’t you try some more controlled drinking bearing in mind meanwhile what we have told you about alcoholism?’a)Write about this in general.b)Have you in recovery tried some controlled drinking with your substance?c)Have you helped a sponsee try some controlled drinking?d)Investigate this from a couple of points of view – your own and helping somebody else. You may have some prejudice and be very controversial about this. Write about and own it.

Q3 (24:1)a)Who wishes to rigorously honest and tolerant?Do you?b)Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Do you?c)Who cares anything about a higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Do you? Are you spending time with a higher Power? Are you doing meditation and prayer?d)Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry AA’s message to the next sufferer? Are you doing this? Do you want to?e)Are you doing these things because you want to or because you want to stay alive? There comes a time when there is a switch. Where you are in that?(24:2) Under the lash of alcoholism, we are driven to AA, and there we discover the fatal nature of our situation.

Q4a)Have you discovered the lash of your particular addiction?b)Are you absolutely sure you are addicted to everything you say you are addicted to?(24:2) Then, and only then, do we become as open-minded to conviction and as willing to listen as the dying can be.

Q5a)Are you willing to listen like a dying person? b)Are you willing to listen to your brother and sister in your step one fellowship who may be dying?(24:2) We stand ready to do anything which will lift the merciless obsession from us.

Q6a)Are you ready to do anything?b)Are you willing?c)Are you willing to help others to do this?​Q7. Read Tradition One, beginning page 129.

12 x 12 Step One page 23 beginning of first paragraph: ‘It is a tremendous satisfaction to record that in the following years this changed.’ until four lines from bottom of page: ‘To the doubters we could say, Perhaps you’re not an alcoholic after all.’

Q1. Part of the Big Book Step Study meeting format states, if you’re talking about the problem, you can’t possibly be talking about the solution. Write on this.

Q2. Stephanie’s statement: People come into their step 1 fellowship in physiologically and emotional different stages. Some people are more physiologically and emotionally addicted to their substances than others. Their recovery is different if they choose a recovery without the Big Book. If they choose a recovery with the Big Book everybody’s recovery depending upon what type of alcoholic they are is the same.a) Do you agree with this?b) Do you have experience with this?c) What difference does this make to you personally?d) What difference does this make in sponsoring others?

Q3 It was obviously necessary to raise the bottom the rest of us had hit to the point where it would hit them. (AA 12&12 page 23 first sentence of second full paragraph)a) When you came into your step one recovery did you feel that you had hit bottom physiologically and emotionally in your disease? If you feel that you weren’t at your bottom, then was your step one fellowship willing to help you raise your bottom?b) Are you willing to raise the bottom for somebody who walks through the door today?

Q4 By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression. (AA 12&12 page 23 second sentence of second full paragraph)a) Were you in an obvious fatal progression?b) Was a fatal progression on the horizon that was going to lead to death?c) Was that what brought you into your step one fellowship – that you could see that you were going down the road to a fatal progression?d) If it wasn’t, what was it that got you into your step one fellowship?e) How are you going to work with somebody, for example a very young person when your stories are so different? (You may be a potential working with a teen who is a last gasper, or has multiple addictions)​Q5 In 12 x 12 read the rest of step one and tradition one (p.133-135). ​

Our live phone meetings are every Thursday at 8:00 AM EST. The phone number for these live meetings is (712) 775-7031, and the meeting ID number is 714744988#.

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You can listen to our recorded meetings at (641) 715-3900, pin 95666# for our Thursday Big Book Step Study workshop. You can also hear our Tuesday Big Book Study recordings at (641) 715-3900, pin 298913#. These meetings can be accessed at any time.